about:jwz

Hi, I'm Jamie Zawinski. I'm the proprietor of
DNA Lounge, a world famous and
award-winning
all ages dance club and live music venue in San Francisco, and of
DNA Pizza, the 24 hour cafe and
pizzeria next door.

Prior to that, I worked as a programmer. I was one of the
founders of Netscape and
Mozilla.org, and have been
involved in the free software and open source community since the
mid-80s. I was the primary developer of Lucid Emacs (now
XEmacs), and probably wrote most
of your
screen savers.

I was the accidental impetus for Netscape's decision to release
the browser source code, and I was one of the creators and curators
of the Mozilla Organization
during the first year of its life. We coordinated the
open source development
of the browser, which eventually became Firefox.

I've written a lot of other software, too. You can find it all
on my hacks page. I've also done a bit of
writing about software, which is on doc.

Chapter Three: I Am Eaten by Sharks

1999

I purchased the DNA Lounge
nightclub in San Francisco, which had first opened in
1985.
The City of San Francisco was determined to shut the club down permanently
rather than allow me to revitalize it, and so many legal battles ensued,
followed by a year-long remodeling project.
All of this is documented in excruciating detail in my
DNA Lounge blog.

2001

DNA Lounge re-opened on Friday the 13th, July 2001.
And there was much rejoicing.

2008

After another multi-year legal battle, I managed to convert
DNA Lounge from a 21+ venue to an
all-ages venue.

2011

I purchased the restaurant next door to DNA Lounge and
converted it to a 24-hour cafe and pizza restaurant,
DNA Pizza.

2015

I opened a new nightclub,
Codeword, plus a second
location of DNA Pizza at
917 Folsom Street (the former Covered Wagon Saloon).

Appendix A: Media Appearances

1998

I have quite a bit of screen time in
Code Rush,
David Winton's 1998 documentary chronicling the final days of Netscape.